This invention relates in general to the field of computing systems, and more particularly to a knowledge management system and method.
Many people use information or knowledge as part of their function within a business or other organization. These knowledge workers acquire information from multiple sources, and use this information in relation to some business activity to generate value to the corporation or entity. As available information sources become larger and more complex to serve a variety of knowledge workers, the task to identify and retrieve significant and meaningful information becomes more difficult. This flood of information presents a challenge to provide information to the user that is valid and useful in the knowledge worker""s activities.
Knowledge workers may spend significant time looking for the applicable information to achieve their business purpose. Once locating the appropriate information, the knowledge workers spend additional time validating and reformatting the information to meet the current need. Worker productivity may be improved by quickly locating the item the worker needs, providing the item when it is needed, and assuring that the item is the correct instance to satisfy the need.
Existing systems that collect, manage, and categorize information may not ensure the validity and usefulness of information for the knowledge worker. Often these systems fail to recognize the association between the knowledge worker and particular information. Also, these existing systems do not effectively manage and identify variations in the information over time.
According to the present invention, the disadvantages and problems associated with managing information have been substantially reduced or eliminated.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer-based knowledge management system includes a client that generates a first request. The client is associated with a knowledge worker. A server coupled to the client receives the first request. The server includes a knowledge matrix that stores status information on a number of knowledge items associated with the first request. The server generates a second request in response to the status information stored in the knowledge matrix. An information source, in response to the second request, communicates information to the server to satisfy the first request.
Important technical advantages of the present invention include a knowledge management system and method that maintains a relationship between knowledge items in a knowledge matrix. The knowledge items may include dynamic or static process items or data items. The knowledge matrix associates knowledge workers to predefined needs, where each need identifies one or more knowledge items to satisfy the knowledge worker""s request. The knowledge matrix also stores status information on the identified knowledge items to determine whether the identified knowledge items are current, in existence, available, or otherwise in the proper form or status to satisfy the knowledge worker""s request. In this manner, the knowledge matrix defines a knowledge worker""s need by one or more interrelated and dependent process or data items.
Further technical advantages of the present invention include the establishment of knowledge worker profiles using both default profiles and personal profiles. A watch module monitors a knowledge worker""s activities over time to further refine and customize the personal profile. Also, a pending module notifies a knowledge worker of the change in status information of a requested knowledge item. Moreover, knowledge management system provides an interface module that accesses a variety of existing information sources to provide appropriate and useful knowledge items to the knowledge workers.
In a particular embodiment, the knowledge management system is implemented in a client/server environment where clients access knowledge items through communication sessions with the server. In a more particular embodiment, the knowledge management system is at least partially implemented using hypertext mark-up language (HTML) information having associated uniform resource locator (URL) addresses. Other technical advantages are readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.